Both angle of view and image quality of the EF 40/2.8 pancake are certainly fully up to spec.I would absolutely love to get a similarly compact, optically good and dirt-cheap 20mm/f 3.5 or f/4.0 Personally I am not interested in EF 24 IS and even less so in the 28 IS oder 35 IS - too much money for what they are. I'll rather get a 24-70 II, which kills them all in one lens.

Other than a 20/3.5 or 4.0 I would also be interested in an ultra-compact EF 75mm/2.8 (IS).

And I'd prefer all those pancakes to be "AF-only", without any manual focus ring & gear on them, but fully wheather-sealed instead. :-)

Interesting idea but I find a manual focus ring is very handy (e.g. shooting stars at night where the camera will be unable to lock focus.)

canon rumors FORUM

It seems like 40mm (on FF) is about the sweet spot for pancakes because it provides a very natural perspective and is a simple lens requiring few corrections to achieve decent optical performance. My favorite lens on Micro 4/3 is the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake that is 40mm FF equivalent. Extremely versatile.

I doubt an EF wide-angle pancake would be able to come anywhere near the optical performance of either (1) full-size wide-angle lenses; or (2) the 40mm pancake. Not enough room for corrective elements. For longer focal length lenses there's probably not enough room to space the elements without some optical magic like diffractive elements (read: crazily expensive, priced out of reach of the target market).

If any new pancake were to come out I'd expect it to be EF-S, 25mm and probably f/2.8 (though f/2 would make it far more attractive on APS-C). That would put it in line in terms of angle of view with the 40mm f/2.8 on FF, and not coincidentally also with the 20mm f/1.7 Panasonic.

It seems like 40mm (on FF) is about the sweet spot for pancakes because it provides a very natural perspective and is a simple lens requiring few corrections to achieve decent optical performance. My favorite lens on Micro 4/3 is the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake that is 40mm FF equivalent. Extremely versatile.

I doubt an EF wide-angle pancake would be able to come anywhere near the optical performance of either (1) full-size wide-angle lenses; or (2) the 40mm pancake. Not enough room for corrective elements. For longer focal length lenses there's probably not enough room to space the elements without some optical magic like diffractive elements (read: crazily expensive, priced out of reach of the target market).

If any new pancake were to come out I'd expect it to be EF-S, 25mm and probably f/2.8 (though f/2 would make it far more attractive on APS-C). That would put it in line in terms of angle of view with the 40mm f/2.8 on FF, and not coincidentally also with the 20mm f/1.7 Panasonic.

You're right, short focal length lenses need to be retro-focus and that makes it a real challenge to get a good optical formula into a pancake.

As for pancakes, I had a 40mm Voightlander but to be honest I think a pancake is too small on a 5DMk* body. I prefer my little 50 and 35 mm Canon lenses for compactness and light weight while they still give something to hold on to.

It seems like 40mm (on FF) is about the sweet spot for pancakes because it provides a very natural perspective and is a simple lens requiring few corrections to achieve decent optical performance. My favorite lens on Micro 4/3 is the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake that is 40mm FF equivalent. Extremely versatile.

I doubt an EF wide-angle pancake would be able to come anywhere near the optical performance of either (1) full-size wide-angle lenses; or (2) the 40mm pancake. Not enough room for corrective elements. For longer focal length lenses there's probably not enough room to space the elements without some optical magic like diffractive elements (read: crazily expensive, priced out of reach of the target market).

If any new pancake were to come out I'd expect it to be EF-S, 25mm and probably f/2.8 (though f/2 would make it far more attractive on APS-C). That would put it in line in terms of angle of view with the 40mm f/2.8 on FF, and not coincidentally also with the 20mm f/1.7 Panasonic.

You're right, short focal length lenses need to be retro-focus and that makes it a real challenge to get a good optical formula into a pancake.

As for pancakes, I had a 40mm Voightlander but to be honest I think a pancake is too small on a 5DMk* body. I prefer my little 50 and 35 mm Canon lenses for compactness and light weight while they still give something to hold on to.

I have the EF 40mm so just imagine what that looks like on a 1D body. LOL